Note To Self: Learn Spanish! Soon!

Yesterday, Lori and I were out running errands, and decided to fill the car with gas. "Do you accept the .45 fee?" "Yes" "Would you like a car wash?" Without thinking, I pushed "Yes"... after all, our baby hadn't had a bath since the thunder storm a few weeks ago, and it always feels good to have a fully gassed, shiny car. We filled 'er up, and proceeded to the car wash. Despite the dreadful humidity, we were feeling good, blasting Dean Martin, and excited to complete our errands so we could get home, make a yummy dinner and watch a movie. We entered the car wash and it did it's thing... water... rainbow-colored soap... rinse. I inched through the dryer, making sure that I didn't allow it to thoroughly dry the front half of the car, only to impatiently speed through, leaving the hind end spotted and sad. I was so proud of myself for drying the entire car, and with a smile on my face, pulled out of the car wash, only to feel and hear *THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP* We pulled over and got out of the car to discover that something in the car wash had completely lacerated and flattened our tire. We just bought new tires last year, and we splurged and bought the largest, safest tires that they offered for our car, so we were a bit irritated to see that one of them was completely slashed. We went inside the gas station to tell the clerk that their car wash had just ruined our tire, and just our luck... he didn't speak a lick of English. Lori used sign language to communicate with him. If she hadn't been upset, I would have explained to her that he was Hispanic, not deaf. She signaled for him to follow her outside to the car wash, and there was a large metal, L-shaped piece of equipment sticking out from the side of the thingamabob that you drive onto. He nodded, picked up the L-shaped piece, and said, "I give you money back for wash." Lori says, "Nooo, you give us money back for tire!" I, at that point decided to try to find humor in the situation. (I've decided not to let little things get to me... especially in the last few months. Life is too short. I knew we had road side assistance, and we had money to buy a new tire and that we'd most likely be reimbursed for the tire... not a big deal.) We called the gas station manager and left a message for him, explaining what had happened. As I was on the phone with road-side assistance, Lori was on the extremely hot pavement in her white pants, loosening the lug nuts. 'She's just loosening them' I thought to myself, and continued talking to the operator for a tow truck. The operator told me that the tow truck would be there in 30 minutes. Great! "Honey, they'll be here in 30 minutes" I said. "Okay" she replied. "So, leave that... let's go inside and wait for him." "Okay, let me just do this first...please" That little sh*t not only removed the lug nuts and the tire, but she put the new tire on before the tow truck even arrived. I was so impressed, but so embarrassed knowing that the tow truck driver would arrive to see that she had done his job for him. He arrived, and I explained what had happened, and handed him $10 and apologized. I could tell he was impressed and equally perturbed, but he kindly offered to help us fill the spare tire with air. We still haven't heard back from the manager of the gas station, but I plan on sending him a letter with these pictures attached. I don't care so much about the money, but they should at least have someone on site that speaks English and can file an accident report in case someone slips in oil or chokes on a Twinkie on their property. In the meantime, I'm going to brush up on my Spanish!